19 September 2016

A journey upwards, through higher values, can take life from the mundane, routine level towards something of greater long-term value. It is an experience of deeper appreciation.

To follow anything or anyone is to be on a journey. It is the same with being a leader, as long as some sort of plan exists.

How do you sustaining the heart and art of
living?

What are your higher values and what is your current plan?

What are you following and who are you following and why are you following?

A
social enterprise is, by definition, an activity involving higher values. It is a continual journey of discovery and
self discovery. It is never predatory, unlike activities more intently
focused on the profit motive yet it sustains itself in a business-like way, by offering quality goods and/or quality services through some form of fair exchange.

16 April 2016

When I wake up and live each day, exploring ideas, exploring history, exploring nature, exploring places and exploring societies, I like to have an appreciative
wonderment. Even waking up is something I am fortunate enough to appreciate.

My curiosity and creativity sustain the heart and art of my life, and my thoughts.

How do you sustain the heart and art of your experiences and preferences?

I know that at heart I am probably not a city person, even though I have
spent much of my adulthood in some of the larger cities of the world. I prefer fresh air and open spaces and beautiful scenery, and time away from people who drain my energy.

Where would you, or do you, prefer to work and live, and why?

I would probably feel very out of place if living for long in a small town of people with nothing better to do than pry into other people's lives. I would not
want everyone thinking they have a right to know everything about me, or to impose their way of life on me.

Nor would I want strangers coming up to me in the street, anywhere. Through the media, and through publishing more generally, readers and other audience members may gain the impression that they already know someone well enough to approach them, for no mutually interesting reason at all.

Over my lifetime, I have met thousands of people. Very few have truly known me. We have merely passed each other fleetingly on different journeys.

There is no fun in being known by face and name but not through shared meanings. There are also many unnecessarily miserable or otherwise annoying people
to endure in many situations. They drain my energy, especially when
they lack discretion and understanding and experiences of many cultures.

It is always exhausting for me to spend time other than how I prefer. I would never want anyone to be under the impression that I have
nothing better to do but to chat with them aimlessly, or to interact in other
relatively purposeless and trivial ways.

I always try to live my life with a sense of joy, even when there are many
obstacles and challenges to face. Manipulative persuasion and presumptive over-friendliness are behaviours I refuse to tolerate in anyone.

Writing about my experiences and preferences can be very useful from a personal point of view, wherever and however I live and travel. When
thinking about my future plans, and the development of my most valued relationships, writing itself
is often the central feature of my search for understanding.

Even so, I never write with a plan in mind of where my writings should take me. When I write, it is an adventure in itself.

What are your plans and adventures and how are they helping you to understand life better?

For me, writing
is merely the expression of my thoughts in a documented form, however
clumsy or incoherent the words might be when read by anyone else. Much of my time is spent in relating to the words, and the ideas they are attempting to convey. I do not wish to have that time intruded upon.

Writing can condense meanings, and feelings, far better than the superficial chatter of small talk. When the words originally appear, they are little more than a
fragmented record of my life. I ask myself questions about my writing, and though my writing.

Do you do the same?

As a reader, I am not necessarily interested in the point of view of any writer. I am interested in how the point of view of other writers compares with my own point of view, and especially how we differ. Just as there is little to learn from the minds of people who view the world routinely, out of habit, there is nothing to be learned from people who agree substantially with my own view of the world.

08 January 2016

Continual Journeys
- and my other blogs - may give you an indication of what I like to
write, and how I go about doing so. Writing is, from my experience, a journey in itself.

Good writing often
involves retreating from the outer, social and natural worlds, at least
for a few moments, as does good editing. My blogs, though, are merely drafts of my ideas. They have only received a small amount of editing. My task in writing them has primarily been to put my ideas in a relatively permanent form, before I forget them. Editing can probably occur later.

What sort of literature do you value, and how, and why? Does the literature you most enjoy reading, and perhaps even writing, or editing, involve any sort of journey?